By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Global overview has revealed that 2.7 billion people have access to sewers, 4 billion lacks access to safely managed sanitation services while 1.5 billion lack basic sanitation services, such as private toilets or latrines.
The assertion was made by the Director General of Bauchi State Environmental Sanitation Protection Agency (BASEPA), Dr Mahmud Mohammed Bose in an FSM Overview presentation he made during a One-day understudy by Gombe and Plateau States officials held in Bauchi supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
He added that, “In Nigeria, more than 35% of the population is without excreta disposal facility while about 50% use pit latrines just 65% discharge untreated faecal sludge environment in unhygienic manners.”
Mahmud Bose further stressed that because poor drainages abound, there is no organized way of dealing with solid wastes among the residents.
He stressed that,”Most programmes focused on increasing access to sanitation facilities by investing in onsite sanitation systems.”
According to him, “The management of onsite sanitation remains a most neglected component of urban (and rural) sanitation.Results: Onsite sanitation facilities have become major sources of ground water and surface water pollution, with signif cant environmental, public health and economic impacts.”
The BASEPA DG added that the FSM challenges include that over 2.6 billion people worldwide are served by (onsite) sanitation methods that need faecal sludge management.
According to him,”If current trend persist by 2030, FSM may be required by some 4.9 billion people. Estimated volume of faecal sludge comes to some 245 billion litres per year with a market potentials of $2.3 billion per year.”
The key challenges of FSM according to him are: Limited awareness of policy makers on FSM, Lack of Legal and Regulatory Framework for FSM resulting in informal and unregulated service provision and Limited capacity to design, construct and operate FSM infrastructure.
Others are: Ignorance on potentials of faecal sludge for productive use in agriculture and energy sectors and attitude of the people.
The Rural/Semi-Urban Challenges and Practices include relatively problem free but FSM cannot be ignored much longer, manual pit emptying is most common as access to mechanize pit emptying services is limited.
He added that currently, there are basically only three options when pit is full: Abandon toilet all together, Empty pit (manually) and dispose sludge in another pit or directly in the environment (fields, open water bodies, drainages, MSW Collection Centres etc.) and Dig a new pit and build new toilet.
The DG added that recently, some semi-urban dwellers connive with plumbers to directly connect pits with drainages underground.
Efforts made so far by BASEPA to overcome the problem include Inter-sectoral collaborations in the WASH sector and Sanitation Capacity Building Platform.
He then disclosed that part of what was done was collaborative efforts by BASEPA, RUWASSA, other MDAS, UNICEF, WaterAid, Action Against Hunger Nigeria, CSO and Media on Faecal Sludge Management in the state with the overall goal of attaining Safely Managed Sanitation (SMS).
Also, Working together towards providing solutions in FSM, and upscaling of capacity building for public and private liquid waste vendors in order to achieve a safely managed sanitation.
A comprehensive guidelines that covers the entire value chain of FSM involve guidelines for faecal sludge management including Faecal Sludge
Containment, Collection, Transportation, Treatment, Disposal and Reuse.
